


Compromise & Thunderstorms

by TopHat



Category: Parahumans Series - Wildbow
Genre: But they still raise the kid together, Divorce, F/M, nopowers!AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-20
Updated: 2020-03-20
Packaged: 2021-03-01 00:00:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,200
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23235859
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TopHat/pseuds/TopHat
Relationships: David | Eidolon/Rebecca Costa-Brown | Alexandria
Kudos: 4





	Compromise & Thunderstorms

Rebecca sighed, shoulders slumping slightly as she took into the small form curled up under the sheets next to David. Quietly though, quiet enough that Tess wouldn’t be able to hear her.  
  
“Rough night?” she asked, walking over to the bed and settling down, reaching out one hand and gently rubbing at the lump until she found a shoulder.  
  
“Thunderstorm,” David replied, gently patting the hat perched on top of the sheets. “Contessa got scared and ran into our room.”  
  
“Not scared,” Tess mumbled from under the cloth. “Cautious. Houses get set on fire by lightning all the time.”  
  
“Of course,” Rebecca said, sliding into bed and resigning herself to another night of maternal activity. She made eye contact with David, who nodded back silently, a shade of disappointment in his eyes, but one tempered by control and understanding. They both slipped an arm around Tess, minimizing skin contact, and waited patiently for sleep to come to the little girl.  
  
Tonight had been date night. That had meant dressing up, a fancy dinner, and sex afterwards if either of them had felt up to it. Usually they weren’t, not after twelve hours of hobnobbing with defense contractors or working through a pile of mediocre papers, but tonight both of them had been feeling the spark. David had made her laugh, she’d made him blush, and the walk back to the car under his outstretched coat had almost been romantic. For a second they’d believed that they’d liked one another again, and there were worse things than sleeping with someone you liked.  
  
Tess murmured wordlessly, rolling over in the bed to face Rebecca. David adjusted the ratty fedora so it stayed on top of her head while Rebecca untangled the sheets a little, allowing the girl to stretch out. Already she was nearing four feet tall, all gangly limbs and coltish youth, and Rebecca smiled as their little girl murmured and nuzzled into her chest. She was getting big, almost too big for this sort of thing. David smiled too, and when he cautiously took Rebecca’s hand she squeezed back in solidarity.  
  
She’d gotten back the positive test two weeks after the divorce papers were filed. That had been a surprise to say the least, and it’d done more than a little to disrupt her plans. The question of the house, at least, had been solved, and after some more informal contracts were written and signed the two of them had settled into a slightly different routine. She didn’t pretend to be in love with him, he didn’t pretend to care too much about her, and they’d turned out to be better housemates than spouses by a mile. It had caused a stir with the neighbors, especially the more traditionally-inclined ones, but ultimately a few cold glares and meaningful fingering of shovels had turned their gazes away. That, and David paid for a new playset at the local kindergarten. Carrot and stick, just not both at the same time.  
  
It had been odd, raising Tess with him. Not because David couldn’t handle the baby, but because the two of them didn’t know how to handle one another. They slept in separate rooms, traded off attending PTA meetings, and did their very best to avoid acknowledging the fact that they were two very different people trying to fill the roles of parents. Not incompatible (usually), but different. For a while it had worked, allowing him to live his life and her to have her own, and she didn’t regret a minute of it.  
  
Then Tess had trapped the two of them in a bedroom together and told them to make up and be a real family again.  
  
After negotiating their way out with a combination of threats and promises of cookies, she and David had sat Tess down and explained their feelings for one another. In return Tess told them about the kids at school, about what they were saying, and about what their parents had been saying. A lot of names were crossed off Christmas lists, hugs were had, and when Tess was tucked in and snoozing away she and David started brainstorming ways to convince Tess that they were madly in love. Hence the passionless kisses, the sickeningly domestic nicknames, the date nights, and the sudden plague of enlisted men and undergrads careening through the streets, egging the houses of the people who had _dared_ to hurt their little girl. She and David didn’t agree on everything, but they had agreed that a little property damage was a proportional response.  
  
 _Talk?_ David mouthed in the low light, raising an eyebrow and pointing to Tess’s now-sleeping form.  
  
 _Tomorrow_ , she mouthed back. David gave her an almost imperceptible nod, slowly getting his head down. Seconds later he was out, and Rebecca smiled again. A habit he’d picked up in the Army, and one Tess had apparently inherited. In him it was one more irritant, a part of the wham-bam-thank-you-ma’am approach to the bedroom that had been more than frustrating in their brief marriage. In Tess, it was one more example of why she was the best child in the world, capable of slipping off to dreamland as soon as she was sure all was right in the world. A double standard, yes, but David agreed with it, so perhaps it was justified.  
  
Rebecca sighed, smile falling away. Tess needed the double standards. Perfect, but different. Mature in a way the other kids weren’t, but also immature. She didn’t like talking for fun, didn’t like holding back, didn’t like leaving an advantage unpressed. Rebecca refused to believe any part of it was malicious, but careless? Maybe. They’d pulled her out of school after Tess had reduced a math teacher to tears, but that wasn’t helping Tess make friends. There was another girl, yes, the one who wanted to be a doctor, but sometimes she would get up from her computer to grab a glass of water, see Tess staring blankly out the window, caught up in some esoteric thought process, and she’d...  
  
She’d worry.  
  
Tess adjusted in her sleep again, pulling David’s arm closer around her, and Rebecca’s smile returned. In the morning Tess would jump out of bed as fast as she could, power walk to the bathroom, and shower furiously to get rid of icky adult cooties. Adorable, and whenever she or David commented on it Tess blushed the most ridiculous shade of red and became even more adorable. It made her uncomfortable though, so they restrained it to their private talks for when Tess was out learning how to shoot. A yawn escaped her, and Rebecca let her eyes drift close, waiting for the descent of the Sandman.  
  
Maybe she worried too much. Tess was different, but different people grew up, stayed different, and still lived happy and productive lives. Worst-case scenario, Tess could live with her and David and do her science in the garage. She could meet people later, people a little more like her, who she could get along with without trying to pretend to be someone she wasn’t.  
  
For now, she was a little girl who was scared of thunderstorms. That, Rebecca knew how to help.


End file.
